Longtime readers of Wrecked or Bay Area locals should be familiar with Casket of Cassandra. In case you need a reminder, Casket of Cassandra, the female-fronted metalcore outfit from Concord, was featured on our site when they played the Bay Area Metal Fest last summer, put on by our good buddies in Nemesis Records. Well, we take our eyes off these guys for a minute, and Nemesis ends up signing Casket of Cassandra behind our backs. Where’s our record deal, Nemesis? Whatever, any music we’d put together would just be too progressive and too ahead of its time. It’s cool.

Anyway, Nemesis has agreed to let us stream Casket of Cassandra’s new single exclusively on Wrecked for a short period of time. Check it out after the jump.

Every week, Wrecked will be highlighting bands playing the upcoming Bay Area Metal Festival. Check out Hatriot from Oakland, CA.

For fans of Slayer, Exodus, Megadeth, Strapping Young Lad, etc.

Fans of Exodus should know the name Steve “Zetro” Souza already, but for those that don’t, Souza was the frontman for the colossal thrash giant from 1986-1993, and again from 2002-04. I should probably have your attention now. Souza returns to the bay fronting the pissed off foursome, Hatriot, and they’ve come to rejuvenate your love for traditional American thrash. The guitars are very melodic for their speed, and Souza brings a pure unadulterated sense of chaos and rage to their sound that you really need to hear to believe. Check them at BAMF this July.

Every week, Wrecked will be highlighting bands playing the upcoming Bay Area Metal Festival. This week we present Desecrater from San Jose, CA.

For fans of Slayer, Death, Metallica, Megadeth, etc

If you like your metal with a constant barrage of double bass and shredding guitars, we’ve got the band for you. Desecrater hails from San Jose with no intention of slowing down or compromising their sound. Led by the bellowing low vocals of guitarist/vocalist Sid Frankosky, Desecrater seeks only to inspire circle pits and beer-fueled brawls. They’re as traditional to metal as you can get; there are no gimmicks or sing-along choruses in sight, just a pure relentless attack. Make sure to check these guys out at BAMF This July.

Every week, Wrecked will be highlighting bands playing the upcoming Bay Area Metal Festival. This week we bring you the pummeling Chained Existence from Mendocino, CA.

For fans of old school thrash, metal, etc.

Do you remember the glory days of when punkers and metal heads united under the common umbrella of pissed off, grungy thrash with group chants and a fuck-you attitude? Chained Existence does. These guys are taking it upon themselves to bring back the energy that’s so easily forgotten with many contemporary bands. You’ll find some face melting solos, circle-pit inducing speed, and some nasty gutteral low growls to go along with all the headbanging you’ll be doing. This is the kind of thrash you expect on the newest edition of Songs to Induce Bar Fight Related Comas To, coming soon to your favorite family record store (if those existed anymore). If you’re looking to get plastered and fight people this weekend, but were a bit concerned by a lack of music to go along with it, have no fear, Chained Existence is here.

Kinetik is a very technical and heavy metal band formed in 2007 in San Jose. Their sound is very thick and is very reminiscent of Meshuggah and Sikth, and seriously “Damn, that’s some fucking metal” was my reaction after hearing Kinetik for the first time. Each song starts with an awesome, in your face technical riff that’s pretty much designed to rip your balls off and would be best listened to during the good parts of any Michael Bay movie….explosions, guns, chicks and….over priced special effects? So if you’re looking for a dose of some down-tuned math metal, with some franticly aggressive vocals, look no further than the band on this page. These guys have a sound that can truly grab you by the throat, so make sure not to miss these guys at BAMF this July.

Every week, Wrecked will be highlighting bands playing the upcoming Bay Area Metal Festival. This week we give you the crushingly brutal Embryonic Devourment from Willits, CA.

If you want a dose of shred with your morning cup of coffee, look no further than Embryonic Devourment, one of the big names topping this years Bay Area Metal Festival. If you like your metal with a relentless attack, full of blast beats, demonic growls, and enough shredding to give a plastic surgeon trouble putting your face back together after everything’s said and done, then you need to turn your attention to these guys. Brutality hardly comes close in describing Embryonic Devourment’s take on extreme metal. Death metal purists, proggressive enthusiasts, tech-metal lovers alike can find something to love about ED’s sound, and I fully expect them to bring the noise this July closing out the BAMF fest with Forbidden and Ulysses Siren.

Every week, Wrecked will be highlighting 2-3 bands playing the upcoming Bay Area Metal Festival. This week we’re bringing back the trash with San Francisco’s own Ulysses Siren.

For fans of: Slayer, Exodus, Testament, Judas Priest, etc

Never forget your roots. Where we come from, the roots of the SF Bay Area are planted with good old fashioned thrash metal. With bands like Exodus, Testament, and of course, the colossal Ulysses Siren emerging from these shores, it’s not hard to see why the Bay Area loves thrash so much. Ulysses Siren demonstrate the beauty of everything thrash should be. Their music is a relentless sonic assault, uppercutting you in the jaw with their blazing fast guitars and commanding drums, hitting you just as hard as when you first got sacked back in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out for NES. The vocals are just as ferocious, reminding me of early Slayer, but with vocal range and control not unlike Rob Halford’s from Judas Priest. It’s not hard to want to break out in an all out circle pit when blasting the tunes from these guys, which is why I can’t wait to bring in the pit with these guys this July. Hit the jump below to hear some of their stuff.

Every week, Wrecked will be highlighting 2-3 bands playing the upcoming Bay Area Metal Festival. Check out Casket of Cassandra, the East Bay’s newest emerging metalcore outfit.

For Fans of Light This City, Bring Me the Horizon, As I Lay Dying, Himsa, It Dies Today, Manntis, etc

Casket of Cassandra is a metalcore band based out of the San Ramon area that really remind me of the old glory days when metalcore was first starting out; when the sound was fresh and I was watching these bands play at The Pound in San Francisco (RIP). Since then, metalcore has become a bit of a bad word, but I think there’s always room for good metalcore bands today. Casket of Cassandra definitely brings me back to those days, and that’s not a bad thing at all. The first thing most listeners will notice is the presence of female frontwoman, Amanda Maddera, and her vocal style, not unlike Light This City’s Laura Nichol — but that’s where the similarities end. Casket has a much more raw and in your face sound, with guitarist and back up vocalist Riley Olacsi providing appropriate doses of melody to give you something to sing along to. The band has also built up some internet-meme worthy notoriety for their metalcore cover of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”, which you can check out here. I’m really looking forward to seeing this band tear up the stage at the BAMF festival this July.

Every week, Wrecked will be highlighting 2-3 bands playing the upcoming Bay Area Metal Festival. Hold onto your pants, because you’re about to have your balls smashed in by Something Left Unsaid, a metalcore band from Pacifica, CA.

Sometimes it seems like there’s a real lack of good shredding in metal today. Something Left Unsaid fills that void with hard-hitting, chunky rhythms, technical leads, and insane solos that will make babies cry (I can literally hear a baby crying right now as I listen to this band and write this spotlight). SLU comes out of Pacifica, starting out as two close friends collaborating tracks online and in just less than a year they solidified a lineup, released an EP, and are working on a full length entitled Deconstructionism. They are definitely a mosh-worthy band dedicated to the art of metal.

Lyceum, though relatively new to the local scene, is as metal as it gets: melodies that conjure images of fighting wizards, nonstop riffage, leather jackets, long, unkempt hair, and blastbeats that could make heads explode. Vocalist Blake Peterson literally sounds like Satan. I instantly thought of Amon Amarth when I first heard this band, but upon listening more intently, I discovered there was much more than just gurgled growls and rapid-fire double bass; there is something very old school about this band’s focus that is refreshing in a “stick-to-your-roots” kind of way. I’m stoked Concord still has bands like Lyceum holding down the darker metal scene and I can’t wait to see them play live at BAMF and give them some local love.

Some tunes and footage of the band tearing it up live await you after the jump…

The last time I saw Izeovasis perform live was more than a couple years ago, and man have they grown. I took my eyes of these guys for a second, only to be surprised to see how refined their music has become. If you’re a fan of technical metal, metalcore, or deathcore, you need to check these guys out. They’re based in Livermore, CA, and will be playing at the BAMF festival this year. These guys can shred your faces off with their technicality and then punch you in the gut with their devastating breakdowns. Izeovasis has everything an extreme metal fan could ask for: pummeling blast beats, a relentless vocal attack, some brutal chugging breakdowns and strong energy to do it all live. The musicianship in this band is impressive, and considering how young these guys are, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing where they are headed. Check out some of their stuff below…

Every week, Wrecked will be highlighting 2-3 bands playing the upcoming Bay Area Metal Festival. This week, we present you the San Jose based death-metalcore act, Repaid in Blood.

For Fans of The Red Chord, The Acacia Strain, Veil of Maya, Despised Icon, Born of Osiris, etc.

One thing I absolutely love about covering the Bay Area Metal Festival is the fact that I’m discovering a lot of great bands from the Bay Area. One that really stands out to me is Repaid in Blood, from San Jose (aka Taqueria Heaven). I dig their technical, yet chugalicious approach to metalcore; think of a young, more rhythm-oriented All Shall Perish with the guitar soloing skills of Zero Hour. I can’t wait to see how their sound progresses over the next couple of years and I’m definitely stoked to see these guys in action live at BAMF. We’ve got some tunes and a music video for you after the jump!

Every week, Wrecked will be highlighting 2-3 bands playing the upcoming Bay Area Metal Festival. We figured we’d start with the headliner, a legendary thrash band native to the SF Bay Area known as FORBIDDEN.

For Fans of: Testament, Exodus, Slayer, Metallica, Iron Maiden, etc.

The 2011 Bay Area Metal Festival is fast approaching, and looks to be one of the most historical events the Bay Area metal scene has ever seen. The mighty Bay Area based thrash metal band, Forbidden, has stepped up to headline the festival and bring spotlight to this incredible event.

Wrecked is happy to announce that we’ll be partnering up with Nemesis Records to promote the biggest local metal event in the Bay Area ever! We’ll be spotlighting each and every band playing this awesome event, so you’ll have everything you need to know before the festival comes! Check out the basic info below and stay tuned for more coverage!!

Nemesis Records LLC would like to proudly announce B.A.M.F 2011 ( Bay Area Metal Festival ). The Bay Area’s newest premier metal festival. B.A.M.F 2011 is an all ages all day metal festival consisting of multiple local Bay Area metal bands and will span over 12 full hours. The goal of B.A.M.F is to incorporate all genres of local metal from all areas of the bay into one great festival.